The Courage to Tolerate: Why Hate Speech Laws Undermine Liberal Society by Ashley Goldsworthy

The Courage to Tolerate: Why Hate Speech Laws Undermine Liberal Society

Ashley Goldsworthy AO OBE

Paperback, 150 pages, $29.95

ISBN 9781923568808

June 2026 release

In recent years, Australia has witnessed a dramatic expansion of hate speech laws, driven by understandable concerns about extremism, social division, and the protection of vulnerable communities. Yet what happens when the cure threatens the very freedoms it seeks to defend?

In The Courage to Tolerate, Ashley Goldsworthy AO OBE examines the philosophical, legal, and political foundations of modern hate speech legislation. Drawing on liberal democratic traditions, legal principles, and contemporary Australian developments, he argues that the growing regulation of speech represents a profound shift in the relationship between citizens and the state.

Goldsworthy explores how concepts such as harm, offence, hostility, and dignity have evolved from moral considerations into legal standards, often with uncertain boundaries and unintended consequences. He examines the chilling effect on public debate, the erosion of intent as a legal safeguard, the risks of selective enforcement, and the increasing tendency to treat controversial ideas as dangers to be managed rather than arguments to be challenged.

Provocative, timely, and deeply researched, The Courage to Tolerate is not a defence of hatred. It is a defence of free inquiry, open debate, and the enduring liberal conviction that a confident society confronts bad ideas through reason and persuasion—not prohibition.